The Mystery of Room Zero
by queendraconis
Summary: What will happen when events draw The Doctor to the mysterious Sherlock Holmes and his companion John Watson? And how is Donna Noble connected to the mysterious happenings?
1. Beginnings

In an old terrace house in a dark and deserted backstreet of Victorian Shoreditch a young man stumbles out of a door, barely managing to hold himself upright as he turns around to face the direction from which he has just come. Falling to the ground, he fumbles around with the inside of his jacket and draws out a small metallic object which he points towards the door of the now smoking building of which he has just vacated. The deathly silence is broken by a high pitched whirring noise and a deafening bang as the door slams itself shut. A fluorescent green light is omitted from the object, throwing a beam of light upon the ominous house in front of him. It is a standard terrace house in the centre of a row of houses, with an ordinary dark brick, and an ordinary black door, with an ordinary brass number plate, reading 505. What is disheartening is the ghostly glow of light in the top left window, and the sinister silhouette lurking behind the curtain.

"How rude! Nobody throws me out of their house!" says The Doctor, as he sat staring blankly at the house in front of him, just as he is catapulted backwards into a wall. While the house he was just looking at dematerializes, and all the air surrounding it shakes vigorously as it often does when teleportation goes wrong.

4 hours later, a bedraggled man runs through the darkened streets of London, with the energy of a man who is frightened for his life. He is a portly fellow of around 30 years, with the signs of a difficult life showing upon his creased forehead. He is dressed in elegant but simple clothes, and gives the impression of a working class tradesman. He turns onto a busy street and is nearly ran over by a large hansom. As he recovers himself he turns to see the man who had pulled him out of the way. He is a young man, aged around 24 he thought, and dressed in a brown jacket, black trousers, a burgundy shirt, braces and a bow tie. But he had barely looked at his saviour and said rushed thanks before he was again running across the road (but this time with caution) and bounding down the street towards his destination.

He looks at the sign on the side of the road to confirm that it is the street he is looking for, and, although never slowing down, looks at each house he passes searching for the right number. At last he arrives at the house he desires, and taking one last glance behind him to make sure he is truly alone, looks up at the sign above him that declares the house to be 221B and proceeds to knock on the door.

-  
>As this is happening, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are seated inside 221B Baker Street, John reading the paper, and Sherlock looking over past case files as he often did when he was lacking inspiration. Sherlock looks up from the files, expectant, just in time to see John jump in his seat as a furious and impatient knock on the door interrupts the highly charged silence that was created by John and Sherlock not having spoken in well over an hour.<br>Sherlock, totally unsurprised by the knock, and laughing at John's startled appearance, says "Well, I believe we have ourselves a client, John"

The unusual young man from the first scene, The Doctor, who was prancing about, vacant, inside his time machine which was cleverly (or not so) disguised as an old telephone box, suddenly shouted the word "KEMOS!" The word seemed to echo through both scenes to form a vague and distant sound in the home of Sherlock Holmes.

"What the devil was that?" cried John, again startled and just a little afraid  
>"I don't know" said Sherlock, irritated that he didn't know something. "But I think that we're about to find out". Both John and Sherlock strained to hear the door below open and close, followed by a sequence of staggered footsteps as the stranger slowly, infuriatingly thought Sherlock, made their way towards the room of a baffled and a little displeased Sherlock Holmes.<p>

Inside the TARDIS the doctor was still talking to himself, and the TARDIS was making a series of noises, much like a computer does when it is performing a difficult task, and like the nonsensical noises a person makes when they are trying to figure out the answer to a difficult problem. "Kemos Kemos Kemos" said the doctor, tapping his head as he often did when thinking, as if trying to spark some thought or information that he had forgotten. The TARDIS seemed to know what he was thinking and showed him the profile of a race called Kemos. The Doctor, grateful that someone knew what he was thinking, stroked the TARDIS console and for a minute lost his train of thought, until something inside him clicked.

"Yes! It's the Kemos. I should've known, Victorian London, all those factories; all that smoke, no better place to hide. But what's this?" He said whilst pulling a strange object out of his inside jacket pocket, and holding it in front of his eyes to examine it. "Well whatever it is, they didn't want me to have it. Good thing they didn't see me take..." he trailed off. "Gotta stop talking to myself, it just looks weird without Amy and Rory here." He said, and then muttered something about the unimportance of honeymoons. As he was talking to himself, he was busy at work trying to figure out what the strange box in his hands was. 'Looks like a metal Rubix cube' The Doctor thought. He turned the object over and over, holding his sonic screwdriver towards it, and then holding his beloved screwdriver upright so he could check the readings.

"Nothing out of the ordinary" he said, sounding and looking a little disappointed. The Doctor loved a good mystery, almost as much as he loved solving them. Little did he know he wasn't the only one.


	2. Perculiarities

Back inside 221B Baker Street, the bedraggled man had burst through the door into the sitting room where Sherlock and John were seated. And in seeing the nervous state that he was in Sherlock told him to sit down in a chair by the fire, and have a drink of brandy. Eventually he composed himself as much as was possible, but he still sat with a nervous twitch and kept regularly glancing toward the window as if to check if there was anybody there, which he knew was impossible, as he was now seated in a second story room.

"You come here seeking advice" Sherlock said. Not a question, just a statement.  
>"Yes" said the man "My name is Francis Khislamova, and I am in desperate need of your help"<p>

The Doctor took out the psychic paper from his pocket, he could always tell when there was a message on the paper because it became almost hot in his pocket. He looked at the message again and again, trying to make sense of it or remember if he should have known the name there, as it was in fact a name.

"Francis Khislamova! Aww that's rubbish. I thought it was gonna be some exciting plea for help, and all you give me is a name!" by this time The Doctor was waving the psychic paper around and almost reprimanding it. He turned around and stalked towards the TARDIS console and typed in the name to see what the TARDIS could tell him about this mysterious person. The TARDIS had information on every living being on any planet at any time, so The Doctor was reliant and dependant on her (the TARDIS had always been a _her_ to The Doctor). For no second did he ever imagine that the TARDIS would have absolutely no idea or information on who this person was.

"Well... That's not good" said The Doctor, absently walking around the room, he stopped to pick up the strange cube object and carried on wandering. "whatever you are" he said to the object, "I'd bet you've got something to do with Francis Khislamova". As soon as the words were out of his mouth the object started moving, twisting and turning itself as if it was unlocking a thousand tiny pieces inside just to get to the outside. The Doctor just stared at it, amazed as the cube dismantled itself on his palm in the flash of an eye. It was no longer a cube, in The Doctor's hand laid an odd shaped flat piece of metal, as if all the walls of the cube had flattened to create a disfigured star shape. What was even more peculiar was that it had carvings on every surface, each symbol carved on it was a word. It was a language The Doctor knew well, and he instantly recognised the string of numbers in the centre of the shape, these stood out as they were not only in a font twice the size of the other writings, but because they were something the doctor used almost every day; coordinates.

The Doctor immediately rushed over to the console, moved a few of the levers and buttons and typed in the coordinates that were on the object. The time rota started ascending and descending as the TARDIS began to move about, throwing The Doctor around as he held onto the console. The only noise he could hear was The Doctors favourite noise in the entire universe: the sound of his TARDIS in flight.

As the TARDIS settled on its destination it materialized on the side of a pathway outside a row of houses at the other side of a modern-day London. The Doctor inside was almost running towards the door with excitement, curiosity, and just a little bit of apprehension. He threw the door open, however, to a street he had seen before. He had seen this road many times along his journeys. He staggered back as a series of memories shot through his head, all in the wrong order of course, first there were the happy memories, then the funny ones, and The Doctor found that he was smiling to himself, because these were some of his favourite memories, and some of the best times he had ever had. They were clear as glass in his mind, because they had been very recent, to him at least. Time passes a lot more slowly when you've lived for 907 years. As he stepped onto the pavement that he had been on just 9 months before, he laughed to himself as another memory shot through his mind, but this memory was tainted, because The Doctor knew how this memory ended. He knew that he could never be here, because he knew its consequences, and he wouldn't risk that for the world. The Doctor sighed and stared longingly at the house in front of him, just wishing he could walk inside and talk to her again. But he knew he couldn't. Because this was the house of his best friend.

This was the house of Donna Noble

**A.N.** Thank you to everyone that has read, reviewed, favourited or subscribed to this. Your feedback means a lot to me, and will probably motivate me to write faster! The chapters are all going to be pretty short; around the 1000 words mark, so that I can update more regularly and you don't have to wait as long for a new chapter.


	3. Enigmas

The Doctor was frozen; his body unmoving in front of the TARDIS. He knew he should get back inside and run as far away from here as possible, he knew that he couldn't keep standing on the street. As he forced himself to turn his back to Donna's house and return to the TARDIS a very big part of him wished that he could go and find her, and ask her to come with him. Just a one stop tour. The Doctor Donna, together again. But he knew that he was fooling himself, and it hurt him to think that he was the person who had caused this. He knew he was to blame for losing his best friend, and he hated himself for it. He hated himself for always hurting the people he loved and he had never felt more inward hatred than he did now.

Thinking about Donna sent a compound of emotions coursing through his body and his mind. He could almost hear the distant sound of Donna calling his name. 'Stop it' he muttered to himself, as his mind accused him of delusions and insanity. He sank to the floor against the console as the voice in his head became gradually louder, and sounding more and more convincing. The Doctor was positive he had lost his mind, and promised to take himself to some deserted distant planet, where he couldn't get himself into any trouble and could take a long deserved break. The Doctor hadn't stopped running for years. Even his trips to holiday planets with Amy were fraught with peril, or as he liked to call them 'Adventures'. The voice in his mind was now painfully loud, and he dropped his head onto his knees, his arms curled around them, and prepared himself for a long day of sitting around and wallowing in self pity.

His track of thought, however, was interrupted by a loud bang as the TARDIS door was thrown open and an excited Donna Noble almost threw herself into the TARDIS. The Doctor, bewildered, stood up and stared blankly at the woman in front of him 

"Who the hell are you?" Donna almost spat at him 

The Doctor just mumbled a series of incoherent and inaudible words. 

"Well" Donna said, impatience making her tone of voice rude and demanding. 'Same old Donna' thought The Doctor. "Are you gonna answer my question or what? Who are you? Where's The Doctor?"

The aforementioned man was puzzled as to why she didn't know who he was and had no idea what to say, when he realised that his appearance had changed since he last saw Donna. He had regenerated saving her grandfather, not that she'd ever know, she couldn't know.

"But. You're. No. Impossible" The Doctor was rambling. His speech slowly returning to him 

"Who. Are you?" Donna demanded. "Are you another Time Lord? Is this a different TARDIS? Is this even a TARDIS?" 

"It's the same one" The Doctor said quietly. 

"Oh! So you're talking now are you? Good. What the hell have you done with The Doctor?" 

" I'm" The Doctor began to say, when a thought he had overlooked suddenly returned to him. "How do you know about The Doctor?" 

"I'm his friend. You still haven't said who you are" 

"I'm. I'm The Doctor" He said, suddenly looking cautious of Donna's health. He had no idea how her memory had returned, and what it would do to her if she knew who he was. 

"No you're bloody not" Donna said, clearly thinking he was a madman. 

"I am. Look. Same TARDIS. Just a little brighter, and a bit more polished. She's still the same one. And I am The Doctor. I've just got-" 

"A new face?"Donna interrupted The Doctor, incredulous. "You grew. A new FACE?" 

"Well sorta, yeah. It's a bit more complicated than that though" 

"You regenerated. Yeah, I was there last time when you almost regenerated. With the Dalek, you remember? Do you even remember? Do you still have his memories?" Donna said, accentuating words in the way only she can. 

"Yes." The Doctor replied, a haunted tone creeping into that one word, showing all his pain and regret. 

"Are you okay though, Doctor?" Donna asked, concerned by the tone of his voice. 

"Me? Yeah. I'm fine. Of course I'm fine. I'm always..fine. I'm not convincing you am I?"

Donna had been looking at The Doctor with an expression on her face that said she wasn't falling for his 'I'm fine' routine. She knew The Doctor; even if this wasn't _her _Doctor. And he knew it. He couldn't pretend with Donna, nor did he have to. 

"Nope. Not at.." Donna was interrupted by the TARDIS suddenly shaking and throwing her around. 

The Doctor, confused and a little panicky, ran to the other side of the console, pressed a few buttons, pulled a few levers, and for the first time in 4 days spoke aloud without feeling like an idiot. 

"We're being hijacked. I can't control her. Or stop it" 

"Oh. It's always the same with you isn't it. Does it ever stop?" 

"Nope" The Doctor said, with a triumphant smile. "You'd better hold on. This could be a long one" 

And so the TARDIS hurtled towards an unknown destination in an unknown time period, and The Doctor rejoiced in the fact that he had his best friend beside him once again. 


End file.
